Autumn Tints at Hidcote
October 5, 2018Chose the right plants and your garden can be a feast for
the eyes in Autumn. Russets, burnished golds, burnt umbers, vermilion reds – a
pallet full of glorious colours to keep us warm as the nights grow cold.
At Hidcote gardens on the edge of the Cotswold’s the garden is putting on its final show of the year, but it’s doing so with a gentle humility; a golden palette of plants fading gracefully.
Vitis cognetiae, the crimson glory vine, is stealing the show with its palm-sized heart-shaped leaves, scrambling over the yew and box hedge with beefy abandon.
Rosa ‘Frensham’ stands out loud and proud in pouty lipstick red. No shrinking violet, this stunning rose has been flowering since June and showing no signs of giving up just yet.
Jostling for attention alongside it are luminous Salvias, dark leaved Cotinus ‘Royal Purple’ and the huge leaves of Banana, Ensete ventricosum‘Maurelii’. Hidcote is famous for its red borders and they have been brilliantly planted to keep the story alive right into Autumn.
Even down at ground level little jewels are providing pockets of colour - colchicum and crocuses amongst them.
But my favourite area of Hidcote was what I nicknamed ‘dingly dell’ where hostas, gunneras, rodgersias and soloman’s seal are going out in a bang of gold, like warm toffee and giving a softness to the garden that can only really happen at this time of year.
